How to make a self-tape audition
The guides do not agree on framing, format or readers. What actually holds across all of them, and what depends on the brief.
Casting and auditions
An audition is mostly prepared before you walk into the room. Part of what happens there is out of the actor’s hands, and part of it belongs to them entirely.
This topic follows the whole chain: reading a breakdown without projecting onto it, choosing what you are going to play, shooting a decent self-tape with whatever you have at hand, and knowing what actually matters to the person who will watch it. Guides disagree on framing, on format and on the reader: what holds everywhere is shorter than you would think.
5 articles 4 terms updated October 22, 2026
Where to start
Articles in this topic
4 articles-
Audition mistakes to avoid: what casting directors actually cite
What casting directors cite when they talk about eliminations, in France as in the US: mostly logistics, files and instructions, almost never the acting.
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Self-tape equipment: what is worth the money, and in what order
Phone or camera, microphone, ring light, tripod, backdrop: what casting directors and platforms say, and in what order to spend money on a self-tape.
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Reading for a self-tape: what casting directors expect from the reader
Where to stand, how loud to be, whether to act, whether it has to be an actor, and what remote readers and apps are worth: what casting directors say.
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How to prepare an audition in 24 hours
What gets cut and what never gets cut when the sides land the night before for the next morning.
Frequently asked questions on this topic
What self-tape should you send when the brief says nothing?
A chest-up frame, landscape, a neutral background, clean sound and light on the face. That is the smallest common denominator of every guide, and nobody holds it against you.
Should you slate at the start of the video?
Only if the brief asks for it. When it says nothing, a short, plain slate at the end of the file works everywhere and does not eat the first seconds of the scene.
How many takes should you send?
One, unless asked otherwise. Sending two versions of the same scene amounts to asking someone else to choose for you.
The vocabulary of this topic
4 terms- self-tape
- An audition filmed by the actor, at home, and sent to the production.
- reader
- In a self-tape, the person who says the other characters’ lines off camera, right next to the lens.
- beat
- The stretch of a scene that runs from one shift of intention to the next.
- cue pickup
- The moment one line triggers the next, and where nearly every dry happens.
The other topics
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